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Panning bike

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Composition, exposure, sharpness, etc...

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Tried panning a boy riding a bike, hope the subject is of reasonable sharpness and background is reasonable blurred.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Saw some children cycling at a open court around 7pm, pan and snap the picture of a boy on the bike. The boy was riding his bike at a reasonable speed, but not very fast.

Re: Panning bike

hi there, regarding your composition.. i feel that you can crop away some space behind the bicycle and also the top. in that way, there will be more concentrated active space for the bicycle to move into.

as you get better with panning, you can drag your shutter speed to achieve "blurrer" background with your subject staying reasonably sharp.

one tip i learnt is to set your camera in burst mode, AF-C, and fire away while panning with your subject. there's bound to be a nicely panned picture in the bunch.

exposure wise, i think the picture is slightly underexposed. making the red shirt of the boy seem dull. maybe you can try up-ing the exposure and maybe increase the saturation a touch?

all in all, i feel that all panning attempts have to start somewhere. and kudos for your attempt!

Re: Panning bike

I have tried this type of shot ( but with a horse ) and know how hard it is to pan smoothly at the correct speed. Haven't tried it with "Live View", which would probably make it easier.

If your intention was to convey a sense of fun & speed then this shot works for me.

Good shot.

Thanks Bob.

Originally Posted by mikeyjayy

hi there, regarding your composition.. i feel that you can crop away some space behind the bicycle and also the top. in that way, there will be more concentrated active space for the bicycle to move into.

as you get better with panning, you can drag your shutter speed to achieve "blurrer" background with your subject staying reasonably sharp.

one tip i learnt is to set your camera in burst mode, AF-C, and fire away while panning with your subject. there's bound to be a nicely panned picture in the bunch.

exposure wise, i think the picture is slightly underexposed. making the red shirt of the boy seem dull. maybe you can try up-ing the exposure and maybe increase the saturation a touch?

all in all, i feel that all panning attempts have to start somewhere. and kudos for your attempt!

My humble 2 cents.

Thanks mikeyjayy. I will need to experiment next time with different shuttle speed and higher aperture no.
As it was around 7pm then, thus the sky is getting dark. Will see about boosting up the exposure. I am positioning the child following rule of 1/3, as for cropping the space behind the bike? Hmmm....

Originally Posted by intrance

i feel the background need to be oof more.. lower f no. might help..
and the green/yellow light is very distracting..
maybe u like to explore at different angle..

Thanks intrance. Will definitely try out different settings and perspective next time.

Re: Panning bike

Originally Posted by whomovemycheese

Thanks Bob.

Thanks mikeyjayy. I will need to experiment next time with different shuttle speed and higher aperture no.
As it was around 7pm then, thus the sky is getting dark. Will see about boosting up the exposure. I am positioning the child following rule of 1/3, as for cropping the space behind the bike? Hmmm....

Thanks intrance. Will definitely try out different settings and perspective next time.

For your information...to ensure a steady pan use an image stabilization lens ( I am sure you are). The vibration reduction mode should be set to NORMAL for Nikon lens,

Re: Panning bike

Abbot man, you are right! Sorry, I am still very new, may I know why VR needs to be off when doing panning?

If you're using a Canon version (70-200 f/2.8 IS I/II) Set IS to Mode 2... It's for panning.

Or, I would suggest getting a lens with very wide aperture... Such as the 85mm f/1.2L or 50mm f/1.2L. If you're broke, rent one. I'm sure you'll be (slightly/more) satisfied with ur pans if you know how to tame them...

Re: Panning bike

No, this isn't OOF... Taken with a 85mm f/1.2L @ f/1.2... (Basically it means that any panning shots I take with this @ f1.2 will have a very narrow focus pt, which if u look closer, is at the extreme right corner where the NCC logo is...)

Re: Panning bike

Originally Posted by thejoggingmat

No, this isn't OOF... Taken with a 85mm f/1.2L @ f/1.2... (Basically it means that any panning shots I take with this @ f1.2 will have a very narrow focus pt, which if u look closer, is at the extreme right corner where the NCC logo is...)

Hmmm... Are you trying to tell us this picture you posted is a panned picture?
And I don't get what you are trying to express.

Re: Panning bike

the whole image is too OOF to tell where the focus point is. even the NCC logo is OOF, and it's hard for viewers to tell if it's the focal point or not. it just looks more in focus because the logo is large. but even just looking closely, every part of the logo is a blur. so i think, it's more like the panning effect that didn't take. keep trying!